"He
that is good, will infallibly become better, and he that is bad, will
as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue and time are three things
that never stand still." --Charles Caleb Colon

The
Palestinian election has the U.S. suffering a diplomatic hissy fit.

Notwithstanding
all the hand wringing, and sputtering, the resultant conundrum of the
Hamas election victory is a direct product of Israel and the U.S. efforts
to accommodate, appease, and ignore the empirical realities of Hamas.

A simple
answer to the ubiquitous question of �How could Hamas have won?� is that
the U.S. and Israel let them. No good deed shall go unpunished.

President
Bush said, "A political party that articulates the destruction of Israel
as part of its platform is a party with which we will not deal." Okay,
so why support and endorse a process in which Hamas was a major player?

The
U.S. made nice with the late Yassar Arafat not because HE ever renounced
the PLO policy of eliminating Israel, but because the U.S. �chose� to
ignore it and made believe Arafat modified his radicalism�despite his
never having done so.

The
Bush �Jones� for democratic elections ignores the inevitability that if
the majority of a population embraces evil intent, the election results
will give you elected officials with evil intent.

Hamas
may be a bloody, ruthless gang of murderers, but they have done a superior
job in �winning hearts and minds� and the results were evidenced in the
election results.

The
way to preempt a geopolitical disaster like what happened is to not permit
the bad guys to play.

Already
the Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Oureia has resigned. Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbass is between the rock and the hard place.
Abbas says he would not be deterred from implementing the �road map; but
that requires negotiations with Israel�and frankly, also with the U.S�.and
THAT dog ain�t gonna hunt as long as Hamas is the political force of the
Palestinians.

If the
U.S. and Israel both refuse to deal with Hamas, the Palestinian dream
quest is wors off now than when Ariel Sharon had Arafat under siege.

Palestinians
have squandered an extraordinary opportunity and once again demonstrated
a unique talent for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

It is
a real head scratcher. Given that Arab refugees in Israel didn�t even
start identifying themselves as part of a �Palestinian� people until 1967�they
were on the brink of an extraordinary public relations coup. And they
blew it!

Israel
AND the U.S. agreed to agree under the Bush brokered �road map�. All the
Palestinians had to do was not kill Israeli civilians and promise to make
nice. Hey, they could have (and �should� have) lied to get the big prize.

Instead,
like petulant adolescents, they used their frustration with the speed
of progress they were enjoying (and the attendant corruption) as an excuse
to rearrange the chessboard. A chessboard they will now find themselves
sitting at alone�with lots of time to blame everyone except themselves
for their brain flatulence.

Some
58,000 security officers are linked with Fatah. They worry (and reasonably
so) their jobs are at risk with a Hamas-led government. Hamas already
has about 5,000 armed gunslingers in the Gaza Strip. The ingredients for
a Palestinian civil war are percolating.

There
is ample evidence to confirm [Read]
the Palestinians don�t have a right to ANY of the dirt in Israel. However,
they have harassed, harangued, and (with the aid and comfort of a compliant
media) beguiled the body politic into �accepting� a manufactured claim
on Israeli land.

The
Israeli�s had capitulated. The U.S. had blessed the �road map�. All the
Palestinians had to do was not muck things up�and they failed.

Hamas
now politically controls the Palestinians. Hamas is anathema to the U.S.
and Israel. The United Nations is as worthless as mammary glands on a
bull and the Palestinian in the street is neutered.

The
deep systemic tensions within Palestinian society and the inability (or
refusal) of Fatah to manage its own corruption and inability to maintain
even the fiction of order has netted a Hamas victory (soon to become Pyrrhic).

The
financial implications are about to become critically apparent to posing
Hamas politicians.

President
Bush has said we will cut aid to the Palestinian government unless Hamas
abolishes their militant symbiot and stops calling for the end of Israel.
That�s about $400-million a year (that frankly they shouldn�t be getting
anyway).

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Israel
is tap dancing but will probably stop transferring taxes and import duties
it collects on behalf of the PA (about two-thirds of the PA revenue).

The
Palestinian Authority is about a heartbeat away from a fiscal disaster
that will make California�s books look almost �healthy��.

"Geoff Metcalf is a nationally syndicated radio
talk show host for TALK AMERICA
and a veteran media performer. He has had an eclectic professional background
covering a wide spectrum of radio, television, magazine, and newspapers.
A former Green Beret and retired Army officer he is in great demand as
a speaker. Visit Geoff's

The
U.S. made nice with the later Yassar Arafat not because HE ever renounced
the PLO policy of eliminating Israel, but because the U.S. �chose� to
ignore it and made believe Arafat modified his radicalism...